Racism Rears Its Ugly Head In Xenophobic Alabama-- Meet Mo Brooks

Last summer we looked at the story of a once powerful dead congressman from Pascagoula, Mississippi, William M. Colmer, a virulent racist who was elected as a New Deal Democrat. Soon after getting to Washington, Colmer figured to his horror that the New Deal programs would not just help white people but blacks as well, and quickly turned into one of the most reactionary members of Congress.

In 1932, Colmer won a primary against Robert Hall, and that turned out to be a very good year for Democrats. Congressional Republicans lost 101 seats in the House that year. Colmer was elected with 94.5% of the vote. He was swept into office as a New Deal Democrat but, like we saw, soon figured out that the New Deal not only helped whites, which he was fine with, but helped blacks… which he was very much not fine with. The Mississippi Democrat made opposing racial equality his life's work-- and, alas, that lasted an awful long time. He finally died in 1980 at age 90.

By all accounts he was a disgusting political figure and in no ways-- except the for "D" next to his name-- a Democrat. He was a blight on the party brand, just the way Blue Dogs, New Dems and corporate shills are today. Even though "Democrat" Colmer endorsed Nixon against JFK, Humphrey and McGovern and endorsed Goldwater against LBJ, the idiot House Democrats-- nearly as pathetic and worthless back then as they are today-- allowed him to retain the Rules Committee chairmanship, putting him in a position to slow down desegregation and other progressive policy for years. When he finally retired in 1972, his administrative assistant, Trent Lott-- another pile of racist dogcrap-- ran for his House seat and won… as a Republican-- the first elected there since 1873.

Maybe we should have looked at Colmer again Thursday in the discussion about what's wrong with American white people. He symbolizes the primitive tribalism and reflexive racism that dominates the South entirely and has spread northward as well. But what reminded me of Colmer today was another ugly racist wing-nut from the area, Mo Brooks (R-AL). Brooks told Fox's Geraldo Rivera that he literally wants to deport all 11 million undocumented Latinos and Asians in America. And he wasn't talking about Romney's "self-deportation" scheme. Brooks has been running round his deep red (R+17) northern Alabama congressional district stirring up racial hatred-- he's the 'War on Whites" guy-- and suggesting Obama be thrown in prison... or, at least, impeached. "At some point," he drawled menacingly, "you have to evaluate whether the president’s conduct aids or abets, encourages, or entices foreigners to unlawfully cross into the United States of America. That has a five-year in-jail penalty associated with it." The Democrats didn't bother running a candidate against Brooks this cycle. Brooks beat Independent Mark Bray-- who had said he would caucus with the Republicans if elected-- 115,212 (74.8%) to 38,830 (25.2%). In 2012, Obama took just over a third of the vote in this KKK heartland district that butts up against Tennessee's southern border and includes Huntsville, Decatur, Florence and the incredibly backward region where Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee all meet. The AL-05 voters back Brooks' extremist, racist, politicized approach to immigration policy. Don't get the idea this isn't an accurate look at what's going on in the Deep South in regard to how these fearful, hate-filled people view immigrants.

The far-reaching scope of President Obama's immigration plan unveiled Thursday night exceeded the expectations of U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, who described the president as acting like a "petulant child."

"I expected the president to consider each of the individual parts of what he proposed tonight but even I was surprised at how far the president went with everything-- including the kitchen sink-- in order to appease the open borders wing of the Democratic Party," said Brooks, R-Huntsville. "It's astonishing."

In an interview with AL.com following the speech, Brooks said Obama's plan is "declaring open borders" to those who want to enter the country.

"It is astonishing the magnitude of economic damage President Obama is willing to inflict on the average American family in order to appease the open borders wing of the Democratic Party," Brooks said.

"In effect, the president is declaring open borders for all past illegal aliens, which will in turn encourage open borders for all foreigners who want to come to America with the exception of people the president says he can identify as criminals or terrorists."

In response, Brooks ticked off a list of possible actions Congress could take-- including consideration of filing articles of impeachment against Obama.

Brooks also repeated a GOP concern that allowing those who entered the country illegally will create a Democratic voting bloc.

"It's brazen," Brooks said. "He's acting like a petulant child who is upset with the American people because they disagree with the worthiness of his public policies. He doesn't want the American people in future elections determining the outcome of those elections. Rather, he wants to import millions of foreigners who he hopes will tip the balance of future election in the Democratic Party's favor."

Addressing specific points of Obama's speech:

Brooks on Obama's plan to strengthen border security: "That's bunk. The president's plan effectively eliminates security at the border by establishing a policy of amnesty for everyone except for known criminals and terrorists who violate our border security laws."

Brooks on the plan to return newly undocumented people back to their homeland: "That's today. The policy he's establishing, sometime in the near future, he'll give amnesty to those folks, too. We just don't know when."

Not to be outdone by Brooks-- after all, this is his territory-- Texas' silliest congressman was busy trying to incite violence, warning his backward, well-armed constituents that the Democrats are inciting violence. "Civil disobedience comes from the left,” said Louie Gohmert. "They’re the ones that loot and shoot up and shoot up stores and do all kinds of things like that. If you look at the conservative gatherings, we even pick up our own trash. But it could be that this president is doing all he can to get conservatives who remember the country when presidents didn’t exceed their bounds and wish we would go back to those days, it may be enough to make them that angry. But I hope not, I hope there’s no violence." Sure Louie hopes there's no violence. You believe him?